So, how can you incorporate a human element to your marketing? How can you increase your leads and referrals? There are many ways to maximize your potential referrals, but today I’d like to focus on Networking, more specifically, Exclusive Networking Groups.

If you haven’t already been exposed to one, Networking Groups consist of business people (typically small business owners, nonprofit organizations, and semi-independent salespeople like real estate & insurance agents) who meet at scheduled times to learn about each others’ businesses with the hopes of generating new leads.

Informal Networking Groups have a relatively casual format, with food and (alcoholic) beverages, games, and prizes, all of which make it easy to relax and mingle.

Formal Networking Groups usually have a regular schedule, and planned activities designed to facilitate exposure for the attendees. Activities might include speed networking, presentations, business card exchanges, etc. Some groups have an open invitation, some have free admission, and some require membership (like the Chamber of Commerce and BNI).

Some are also Exclusive Networking Groups, where membership and attendance is limited by demographic or business categories. My first exposure to exclusive networking was when the Amelia Business Network was formed. The idea struck me as interesting, but when I saw a list of members that had already joined I immediately saw a problem… I couldn’t join.

According to the ABN website:

“All Active Members will have their line of business protected from direct competition and/or conflict of interest within the group … invites should not be extended to those who represent a similar line of business of an Active Member UNLESS that Active Member has been contacted and welcomes the invite.”

This means that ABN (and BNI) members are provided exclusive membership within their category of business. If you are a photographer, then no other photographer can join. If you‘re a web designer, then you’ll have exclusive access to offer your services to ABN’s members and be the go-to provider for any referrals other members can send your way.

The initial appeal is obvious, your competition is removed from the equation, leaving you to reap the rewards. You become part of a tight tribe that makes every effort to work within a closed network.

However, there are several downsides to Exclusive Networking Groups…

Civil Rights,
Schmivil Rights

Some networking groups limit membership by demographics like gender or age. These networking groups focus on the betterment of the members within their demographic, such as helping women advance as professionals. I believe these groups can exist just fine without having rules about who can or can’t join. For example, locally we have The Young Professionals Council of Nassau County. (The YPC)

This year I made an effort to attend most of the YPC events and sponsor the organization. Then some things happened that opened my eyes. When I hung posters for YPC events on the door at Mixed Media, my clients would say, “Oh, Mixed Media is hosting an event? Maximize Your Marketing sounds interesting. I should go! Oh… it says ages 21-40, I guess I can’t go.”

This made me feel horrible and I worried what my clients thought of my sponsorship of the YPC. I told my clients their age didn’t matter and to come anyway. But they didn’t. They were afraid they might not really be welcome.

Nonetheless, a 40+ reflexologist showed up at Maximize Your Marketing. At the end of the event she explained, “I have been working for other people all my life, and I recently decided to go out on my own for the first time. I feel like that makes me a young professional because I have just as much to learn as everyone else here.” This made me quite happy to hear, and at the next YPC board meeting I explained how I felt, and repeated the reflexologist’s story. I proposed that rather than exclude those who have much to teach us, and create negativity, that we make the 21-40 age range our focus, not our exclusive club. The board agreed that we should give it a try, and (I believe) the YPC can have a more positive momentum now.

The Dodgeball Draft

Remember in school how there was always the kid who got picked last for the dodgeball team? Maybe you were that kid, or friends with that kid. Maybe that kid was your son or daughter. “That kid” represents any person that is excluded. Sure, it’s not quite as emotional as high school, and it’s just business right? No matter what aspect of life we’re talking about, rejection and exclusion spread negativity. I believe negative energy should be minimized in both business and society.

Sometimes kids choose team members because of reasons other than success. That can lead to an ineffective team. Exclusive Networking Groups have the same problem. The members are not chosen on merit of any kind.

While I was observing how ageism was affecting both the YPC and my own clients, something else happened. My clients would say, “Hey John, you should check out the Amelia Business Network, a lot of people there could use your services.” I would respond, “I’d love to, but I’m not allowed to attend. As a full-service marketing boutique, we conflict with at least two of their members. We offer printing, which conflicts with Amelia Island Graphics, and we also offer web design, which conflicts with My Web Refresh.”

My clients kept making the suggestion, so I decided to contact the founder of ABN to see if I could join. After all, Mixed Media is unique in that we provide comprehensive and integrated marketing services to small businesses and nonprofits. Mark noted that exceptions could be made at the discretion of my competitors, and said he would ask both of them if they would make an exception and let me join the group.

Both said no, of course.

At first I felt the sting of the dodgeball, but I was soon comforted by an interesting realization: my competition is scared, a decent consolation in my opinion. Would I have done the same thing in their position? While it might have been my first instinct, my experiences have taught me that transparency and accountability are important, the rest is just…

Smoke & Mirrors

Exclusive Networking Groups offer an appealing scheme. Excluding a competitor feels sensible on a primal level. We think “more for me” as if it were the last chunk of woolly mammoth meat. But it doesn’t make logical business sense in the long term.

If you live in a smaller community, the leads will dry up over time. One man’s competitor is another man’s lead. If you are pitching to the same exclusive members every meeting, what happens once you’ve gotten all the leads you can? For some businesses, this isn’t as big a deal, but what if you sell life insurance?

Additionally, there are no enforceable requirements of the network’s members to use member services and products. If you think the group’s plumber stinks, then you’ll be in the position of having to tell him so… or simply avoiding him. Oh, and that works both ways. If the members aren’t satisfied with your services, they won’t give you leads. They might not even tell you why. Real trust and success is earned, not purchased or leveraged through an exclusive membership. The human connection cannot be faked. If you think being part of the club will help you cheat your way around the competition, good luck! I’m not saying Exclusive Networking won’t work at all, just be aware that your competition is still out there, building sincere, long-term relationships. When you operate within a walled garden, you feel safe and in control, but the rest of the world is still growing all around you. Look at what happens to the US economy when globalization and international outsourcing occur. Our system breaks down. Which brings me to….

Destructive Competition

The fundamental problem with having a cozy exclusive networking group is its defining rule, no competition. They even have a term for this concept, Destructive Competition, defined here:

“Destructive competition seeks to benefit an individual/group by damaging or eliminating competing individuals or groups; it opposes the desire for mutual survival. It is “winner takes all”, the rationale being that the challenge is a zero-sum game; the success of one group is dependent on the failure of the other competing groups. Destructive competition tends to promote fear, a “strike-first” mentality and embraces certain forms of trespass.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Now, let’s look at the opposite:

“Cooperative competition is based upon promoting mutual survival - “everyone wins”… through peaceful exchange and without violating other people. Cooperative competition focuses individuals or groups against the environment.”

So considering our global and internet-based economy, and the assumption that we want our society/economy/species to develop with some stability, which would you choose? “Survival of the fittest” does not mean what it used to in a world where sustainability and the internet are equalizing industries at an alarming rate. Destructive competition is dependent on the failure of your rivals, but exclusive networking groups do not actually eliminate competition, they create a false sense of security.

Embrace your competition, it makes the world a better place through stability, sincerity, and quality.

Here is what she had to say:

“After long and careful consideration, I have decided to sell and transfer my web design business so that I can concentrate on becoming a full time artist. I am transferring all my clients over to Mixed Media, a wonderful company on Amelia Island who provides printing, design and websites. They are a full service company who can help you with your complete branding needs, including social networking. We are both excited about the transition and invite you to visit their website at: mixmed.com and become a fan if you’re not one yet at facebook.com/mixedmedia32034″

What’s all the buzz about? Why should you care?

This Social Media Workshop is for fellow tweeters to meet up, in real life, to discuss social media and how it can be used for various personal, business, marketing, and entertainment purposes. This will be an open discussion for all to join in. This will be a great opportunity to meet up with fellow Islanders and professionals. Meet new tweeters before you even follow them on twitter! Light refreshments that will be available. Bring your laptop too, and join right in via wifi!

The session will be held at 5:30 pm on June 22, 2010 at 1997 South Fletcher Avenue in the Amelia Hotel conference room. There is limited season, so please RSVP to Jamie Hendrix: servpro.fernandinabeach@yahoo.com – We look forward to seeing you there!

As designers and marketers, we spend so much time trying to improve, polish, simplify, and focus our layouts, that we rarely see what advantages a poor layout might bring. Our efforts serve to elevate our clients to look more professional, more successful, more reliable, and a bunch of other things we all aim to have our customers perceive of us.

But what if you don’t want those qualities? What if you WANT people to think your business is small, cheap, inexperienced, or otherwise unsuccessful? Why would any business want to look that way? Well, what if you have a fruit stand, provide budget lawn care, or if you sell defective clothing? While it is debatable, you might want to consider actually looking cheap, or unprofessional, because that might be how your audience is comfortable seeing you. After all, the bait must suit the fish, not the angler, and if your target audience sees your hand-written photocopied flyers, they can reliably make some assumptions about your fees, products, and services.

Essentially, we’re talking about targeting people who know how to recognize a bargain, people who have low income, people who don’t like a “hard sell”, and people who have less education and ability to discern the values of more reliable and professional businesses. These types of people can be found everywhere in the world… and they spend money too.

This concept serves as a good reminder that any professional involved in the marketing world should  concentrate on the effectiveness of marketing, not whether or not you’d be proud to add the design to your portfolio. We often steer our clients away from putting excessive content in ads that no one will read, or imagery that the owner likes, but we believe will be ineffective. Well, designers and marketers need to make sure they aren’t guilty of the same behaviors! Just because something is prettier, does not mean it is always a better solution.

I believe that Badvertising DOES have a place as a method. It would be extremely unlikely that Mixed Media would choose this approach, but I recognize that it could be used as intentional design style if one were so inclined.

This is something I’d like to discuss further, and explore the details of, so I encourage you to leave comments! Maybe you have some examples of “good” Badvertising?

The Federation of Dining Room Professionals (FDRP) is  the leading provider of hospitality certification and restaurant educational solutions worldwide.

When FDRP came to Mixed Media to redesign their logo it was a great opportunity for both Mixed Media and FDRP.  Their previous logo was very straight forward and feeling outdated. The water pitcher is a symbol of generosity. For the dining room professional, graciously pouring water is a reminder that service is about the customer.  In the end, this concept was given a cleaner look, better legibility,  and the added pouring “action”.

Mutually, we agreed on a deeper shade of red to maintain brand equity, but we removed the yellow accents to maintain the clean modern look. FDRP was overly pleased with the final result, and we are now working with them to make updates to their marketing materials, as well their first Sweepstakes promotion! Mixed Media is extremely proud and thrilled to work with FDRP, and we look forward to working with them on future projects.

John Carvalho, of Mixed Media, led a Marketing Roundtable and Q & A event for the Young Professionals Council, focusing on the concepts of branding, advertising diversification, and internet marketing methods.

John has been working in design, printing, and marketing industries for 15 years. Attendees will be free to bring up relevant topics and ask questions in this free-form discussion.

The meeting was held at 5:30pm on Tuesday, May 18th, at Scott and Sons Fine Jewelry on Amelia Island Parkway and A1A. If you haven’t been to a Young Professionals meeting yet, now is a great time to join. It’s free, fun and an excellent way to meet your local professional peers.

Jamie Hendrix, of our local ServPro provided delicious treats! Thanks Jamie!

The COA has a goal of providing compassionate care services that foster independence and help area seniors remain active, valued members of our community. To assist in that goal, we provided a clean design that provides immediate and easy access to the information caregivers are looking for: up-to-date news and information on events, contact information, services, and additional on-line resources. Volunteers can find out how to help, and even complete an online application. Finally, the COA can keep site visitors up-to-date with recent news articles right from the home page.

The Council on Aging of Nassau County is a great way for area seniors to stay active, and for caregivers to find assistance. If you would like to volunteer, donate, or just find out more about the COA, visit their site today!

The YPC has a goal of providing networking, professional development, and community service opportunities to those between the ages of 21 and 40 who live or work in Nassau County. The YPC helps young professionals expand their network of peers beyond their workplace. The best part is there’s no cost to join the YPC, so there’s no excuse not to participate!

The site is very clean, simple, and user-friendly. The website contains a calendar where you can check out all the upcoming events. Additionally, there are news posts will be updated frequently, so there is always something new to check out on the YPC website. The website was created with Content Management System that will allow the board members at the YPC to have control over their site to add new content, news posts, and events.

Get involved with the YPC, it is a great way to meet new people, grow your business, and make a difference in Nassau County.

If you are interested in hosting an event, would like to sponsor an event, or have general questions about the YPC, contact Hillary Sherrill at hillary@ypcnassau.com.

The 2010 American Package Design Award was given for our work creating the packaging for Scott & Sons Fine Jewelry’s gift bags.  We worked with Drew Scott, of Scott & Sons Fine Jewelry, to develop a logo and supporting brand for his jewelry store, located in Amelia Island, FL.  The bags come in two sizes, cut in a European-styled tapered shape, with metallic silver ink around the trim. One great aspect of the design is when the shopper discovers the side panels have an attractive ornamental decoration.

Our goal was to create a bag for our client that would “Wow!” his customers, we’re glad to see that GDUSA, and Scott & Sons were impressed with the results!

We also moved our office to our great new location at 9900 Amelia Island Parkway, Suite 100. We’re right next door to one of our favorite clients, Scott & Sons Fine Jewelry.  Please visit us soon!